SA’s £10m to Warner and Blazer refuses to leave spotlight

Danny Jordaan4

By Andrew Warshaw
June 6 – South Africa’s 2010 World Cup boss Danny Jordaan (pictured) is back in the firing line over the infamous $10 million which United States prosecutors allege was a bribe to secure the country the showpiece tournament and which South Africa’s government counters was a perfectly above board World Cup legacy payment.

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Europol links with Sportradar to take the war to match-fixers

Wil van Gemert

June 5 – The battle against betting related match fixing is seeing a rapid uptake in stakeholders looking for ways to combine resource and intelligence to control what is probably the biggest threat to the sporting integrity of the game. The latest information sharing agreement is between the European Union’s law enforcement agency Europol, have linked up with Sportradar’s betting security division.

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Turkish Lassa Tyres tread new path with FC Barcelona

Barca and Lassa

By Mark Baber
June 4 – Barcelona has signed a wide-ranging partnership agreement with leading tyre brand Lassa, of Brisa (a joint venture of Turkey’s Sabancı Holding and Bridgestone) worth a reported €21.6 million ($24 million). As well as making Lassa the title sponsor of Barcelona’s indoor sports teams (Basketball, Handball, Futsal and Roller Hockey) which will be known by the name ‘FC Barcelona Lassa’ until 30 June 2019, the agreement sees the Turkey based company become an Official Partner of the Club and Lassa become the club’s official tyre.

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David Owen: Blatter’s long goodbye

Not for the first time, he wrong-footed us all. When the invitation to a FIFA press conference thudded into our inboxes on Tuesday at 3.36pm UK time, I don’t think anyone seriously expected two hours later to be listening to Sepp Blatter, one of the great survivors of our world, setting out how he proposed to “lay down my mandate” as FIFA President.

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